Chapter 33
A blue jersey with golden highlights. A luxurious muffler with a matching color scheme fluttered with both ends behind her. A black cap with a familiar gold pattern that El-Melloi could swear he'd seen before. A pair of black leather hiking boots. Black shorts that could have been mistaken for bloomers peaked out under her jersey, and a blue sweatband wrapped around the wrist of her left arm. In her right, she clutched a glowing sword that El-Melloi definitely recognized, and for some reason a very stiff strand of hair was sticking out of her baseball cap, piercing through some unseen hole in it to remain visible. Finally, her face was a dead ringer for Gray. The resemblance was so uncanny as to be almost completely the same, the facial structure mimicking each other in every way possible, to the point they could be mistaken as twins. The only differences were the eye and hair color.
"By the way, I'm not an Assassin, I'm definitely a...hm?"
The Servant paused midway, noticing something about her Master.
"That aura around you…my ahoge is reacting to it. Could it be?..."
Indeed, the strand of hair hanging out of her cap was twitching slightly in Gray's direction, vibrating a little as well. Gray, confused by her Servant's reaction to her, pulled the hood further down on her face as MHX stared hard at her face.
Step by step, the Servant drew closer to the Master, staring intently at her all the while. Gray was reminded of Svin's behaviour around her, but even he wasn't so intense, though on occasion it could reach this level. El-Melloi watched the proceedings on the side, slightly confused as well.
"Master, could you lift your hood for me to look at your face?" MHX stopped right in front of her, green eyes burning holes into Gray's head. In response, she shrank even further into her hood, embarrassed by someone staring at her so hard.
"Um, is it really necessary? My face isn't really worth looking at."
"No, please flip it open right now." The Servant's voice took on a harder edge, her eyes narrowing at Gray. Sensing hostility, El-Melloi started to walk forward to intervene.
"So what do we call you? Your code name is Heroine X, so do we call you that? Or is there some other name you'd like us to call you?" El-Melloi was wondering what kind of Heroic Spirit she was. Based on her clothing, she seemed to be a very modern Heroic Spirit, but with Add, and by extension Rhongomyniad, as the catalyst, there was no way they had summoned anyone else other than King Arthur. Who the hell was she then? She certainly looked the same, but her clothing and words seemed to contradict that notion.
"Just call me MHX, short for Mysterious Heroine X. I am the Saber that will kill all Sabers. Now lift your hood, Master."
Undeterred, she doggedly insisted on seeing her face.
"Why do you want to see my face?"
"I need to know if you look like me." MHX answer was perplexing, but after El-Melloi heard what she had said about being a Saber that would kill all Sabers, he could deduce why she was asking now. If she was referring to that Saber, it would explain why she was so aggressive towards Gray.
"She doesn't look like you at all, right Gray?" He tried to assuage her concerns, knowing that if she decided to use brute force, he wouldn't be able to do a thing.
Gray looked at her Master as he winked at her.
"No, I don't look like you at all." She didn't understand why he wanted her to lie about her looks, but it was most likely for her own good.
"I see. In that case, I'll just have to see for myself."
Before either of them could react, her hand shot forward like a bullet and flipped open the hood, ripping the fabric out of Gray's hands.
*fwip*
Gray's shocked face was out in the open, staring at MHX for doing that to her. Were all Servants like this?
MHX stared at her face long and hard, walking around her to inspect every inch of her features, then stepped one step closer from behind until she was standing right next to Gray. With deliberate movements, she raised her nose to sniff her hair, then pushed her head forward until she was cheek to cheek with Gray. Gray was frozen in shock at her actions, unable to react properly. Slowly, a pink tongue extended out of MHX's mouth to lick Gray's cheek, dragging across the porcelain fine skin and absorbing the taste of her body. The slimy appendage tickled Gray, but she felt no urge to laugh or jerk away from it. She was utterly frozen by MHX's actions, muscles unable to respond normally.
"This taste...is the taste of an Artoria! Gray Pendragon!"
*FWISH*
The glowing sword blurred forward, light trailing behind it as it swung to bisect her in half at the waist.
"GRAY!"
Even as she was licking Gray, El-Melloi had already prepared the crystals and threw them at MHX as she was about to finish her sentence. The crystals activated just as she swung her sword, five cubes each reaching a predetermined point to form a square pyramid of light encasing MHX, freezing her for a moment. Thankfully, she had no Magic Resistance to speak of, so even the magic by a mediocre quality magus such as El-Melloi could restrain her for a second. That second was enough for Gray to dive forward and dodge the sword as it shattered the pyramid and completed its swing.
"All Sabers must be killed, all Artorias must be destroyed! They are a cancer of the universe, and I am the CURE!"
MHX seemed to be going into a frenzy at the sight of Gray, her switch flipping hard. El-Melloi had no idea what she was raving about, but he knew that they had to act fast, or the War would end for them sooner than they thought. It seemed like she had been triggered by Gray's appearance, so there was a possible countermeasure he could use.
"Wait, she didn't want to be like this!"
She paused just as she was about to charge at Gray, the ferocious light in her eyes fading a little as she registered his words.
"Didn't want to be like that? What do you mean?"
She wasn't too far gone yet, despite her sudden spike in anti-Saber cells, so she was willing to listen.
"She was molded from birth by Arthur cultists to become a vessel for King Arthur, and so her appearance suddenly became like King Arthur at a certain point in her life. She never wanted to wear this face, and it was all forced upon her by people who never treated her as human. She even lost her sense of self, unable to differentiate her own existence from that King Arthur. In the end, her only purpose was to act as the flesh of King Arthur, and her soul would be lost once the soul of King Arthur was fused to her body. In fact, she hates this face, for forcing her to become like this in the first place!"
He quickly explained her circumstances to her, making sure to stress the fact that she didn't want to be a Saberface in the first place, and that it was forced on her. Still, MHX still looked like she was going to run her sword through Gray. Then inspiration struck.
"Also, her wish is to change her face back to her original."
At that, MHX seemed to have an internal struggle for a moment, before lowering her sword.
"If this face was forced on her from the start, then she's a victim instead of an enemy of the Artoria cancer. Good grief, to think there were people that would actually turn people into Saberfaces, how crazy are they? And if she wants to change her face with the Holy Grail, then she's reducing the number of Saberfaces, and that aligns with my mission. Very well, I'll be willing to serve as her Servant then. Also, she does not have the taste of a Saber, so she's fine in that regard too. In fact, her taste is closer to that of an Assassin, very fragrant…"
Some of her words made no sense, but they managed to get the gist of it. El-Melloi let out a sigh of relief as Gray stood back up, the unusually silent Add in her hands.
"What a mess. Well, let's introduce ourselves here. I'm Waver Velvet, but most just call me Lord El-Melloi II, and your Master here is Gray Pendragon, my apprentice."
"That's right, Sir saved me from the village I was raised in, and he hates my face so he told me to wear a hood to hide it." Gray seemed to catch on to why MHX hated just now, and decided to pitch in to help convince her.
"Ohoh? A fellow anti-Saber enthusiast! What luck, I thought I wouldn't be able to find a compatriot, but it seems like I've struck gold! Let's kill Sabers together, El-Melon!"
"It's El-Melloi!"
After a rough start, the Servant started to get along with her Master and allies, and when the other student of El-Melloi descended from the helicopter to join them, the two of them hit it off straight away. It took a while for them to restore order, but El-Melloi managed to get them focused again.
"Now, we have several objectives in the Fifth Holy Grail War. First and foremost, we are not to win the war, but instead investigate the Grail, and determine its nature, as well as judge whether it needs to be dismantled, reset or retrieved for study, depending on the results of the investigation. We also have the secondary objectives of securing important thaumaturgical discoveries to boost the position of various departments in the Clock Tower, and finding out what happened to the younger of the Edelfelt sisters that took part in the Third Holy Grail War. These were mandated by our backers, the Edelfelt family and the Archisorte family, so if we don't fulfill them we can expect them to force us into some absurd demand to repay the favours we owe them at a later date." He paused, grimacing at the thought of what Reines in particular would make him do.
"Anyways, our first course of action is to eliminate the other Masters besides the Three families, to reduce the potential risk factors, which means we have three targets. We know the identities of two of our targets, both sent by other factions in the Clock Tower, and we will target them first. The first, an Enforcer specializing in hunting Sealing Designations, who has also traveled the world on numerous missions and fought many different enemies across the world to become famous among Enforcers, Bazett Fraga Mcremitz. The second, an alchemist affiliated with Valuay, the faculty of Creation, with numerous financial assets at his command, Atrum Galiasta. We have received word that Atrum and Bazett are both coming to Fuyuki in the next few days, but Atrum will arrive first, so we will target him at the earlier opportunity we get. Ass-Saber, observe him from a distance and strike if an opportunity presents itself, understand?" She had been insistent on them calling her "Saber", and since it would confuse their enemies as well, he agreed to do so.
"I only listen to my Master."
"Ah, MHX please do like he asked you to."
"Got it! But for now, do you guys have anything to eat around here? Any Artorium bars or Cosmocrisps?"